Zarina told Pajhwok news that the unprovoked attack took place after her husband suddenly woke her up at midnight and attacked her and cut off her ears with a knife.

She was married to him at the age of 13, and told BBC that "relations with her husband were not good".

Zarina also complained that her husband had tried to prevent her from
seeing her parents in another interview with Tolo News. She said she no
longer wanted to remain married to him.

"“My husband always treats me badly. I wasn’t even allowed to visit my
parents. He is a very suspicious man and often accused me of talking to
strange men when I went to visit my parents,” she said.

Zarina has called on Afghan legal and judicial institutions to arrest
her husband and to ensure he is prosecuted. They are investigating the
incident, but the accused remained at large.

Mazar-i-Sharif public hospital head, Dr. Noor Mohammad Faiz, said the woman was delivered to the hospital on Tuesday morning.

He said the woman’s ears had been cut off and she was in trauma, however, her condition was stable.

Zarina's account is the latest in a series of high-profile domestic
abuse incidents and cases of violence against women in Afghanistan.

In January 2016, a young woman, Reza Gul [pictured, below], had her nose
cut off by her husband in the remote Ghormach district of north-western
Faryab province.

Some months later, a woman was critically ill after being nearly beaten to death by her husband
In November 2015, a young woman was stoned to death in Ghor province after she had been accused of adultery

Earlier that year, a young Kabul woman, Farkhunda, was beaten and burned
to death by a mob over false allegations she had set fire to a Koran

In September 2014, a man cut off part of his wife's nose with a kitchen
knife, in central Daykundi Province, according to police. It is not
clear whether he was ever caught.

The case of Aisha featured on the front cover of Time magazine in 2010,
after the 18-year-old was mutilated by her husband who cut off her nose
and ears as punishment for running away.